[Update 9 December 2014]
Summaries online
The summaries of the Climate Dialogue on Climate Sensitivity and Transient Climate response are now online (see links below). We have made two versions: an extended and a shorter version.

Both versions can be downloaded as pdf documents:
Summary of the climate dialogue on climate sensitivity
Extended summary of the climate dialogue on climate sensitivity
[End update]

Climate sensitivity is at the heart of the scientific debate on anthropogenic climate change. In the fifth assessment report of the IPCC (AR5) the different lines of evidence were combined to conclude that the Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS) is likely in the range from 1.5°C to 4.5°C. Unfortunately this range has not narrowed since the first assessment report in 1990.

An important discussion is what the pros and cons are of the various methods and studies and how these should be weighed to arrive at a particular range and a ‘best estimate’.  The latter was not given in AR5 because of “a lack of agreement on values across assessed lines of evidence”. Studies based on observations from the instrumental period (1850-2014) generally arrive at moderate values for ECS (and that led to a decrease of the lower bound for the likely range of climate sensitivity from 2°C in AR4 to 1.5°C in AR5). Climate models, climate change in the distant past (palaeo records) and climatological constraints generally result in (much) higher estimates for ECS.

A similar discussion applies to the Transient Climate Response (TCR) which is thought to be more policy relevant than ECS.

We are very pleased that the following three well-known contributors to the general debate on climate sensitivity have agreed to participate in this Climate Dialogue: James Annan, John Fasullo and Nic Lewis.

The introduction and guest posts can be read online below. For convenience we also provide pdf’s:

Introduction climate sensitivity and transient climate response
Guest blog James Annan
Guest blog John Fasullo
Guest blog Nic Lewis

To view the dialogue of James Annan, John Fasullo, and Nic Lewis following these blogs click here.

Climate Dialogue editorial staff
Bart Strengers, PBL
Marcel Crok, science writer